The Word Made Plain

Guest (Female): Welcome to the Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching through the Book of Romans. Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 1, verses 8 through 12.

Tony Clark: Christianity is uniquely the religion of the possessive pronoun. Can you say with great confidence and joy, like Paul and Thomas, that Jesus Christ is my God? Can you say my God with admiration and love in your heart instead of using this phrase to express your anger, disgust, or disappointment? The only way that you can say this with confidence is when you have truly repented of your sins and accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. This is the only time you can say with great joy and confidence that He is your God.

Something else I want to draw to your attention is how Paul said, "I thank my God," notice, "for you all." He didn't say, "I thank God for most of you," or "I thank God for you all, but there's a couple of exceptions to the rule." No, he thanked God for all of them. The rich ones, the poor ones, the ones who were a hot mess, and the self-righteous ones—Paul said, "I thank my God for you all." Are you thankful for all the saints, all the believers in Jesus Christ, or only for those ones who look like you or go to this church?

I used to be like this, and I'm ashamed to even admit it now because when I see it from people around the country, I mourn because I used to think just like them. If you went to other churches and didn't attend a Calvary Chapel, I looked down upon you in my heart, secretly in my heart. When I lived in Southern California, it was rare to come across another Christian that didn't go to a Calvary Chapel. Yes, there are other churches out there, but at this time, 30 years ago, many of the Calvary Chapels were two, five, ten, twelve, fifteen-thousand-member churches.

Wherever I went around the area, to meet another Christian meant they went to a Calvary Chapel. I would begin to say, "What Calvary Chapel do you go to?" and I used to thank God for the saints who went to Calvary Chapel. God had to severely rebuke me for this self-righteous ugliness that was in my heart. It took me coming out here where you can have ten Calvary Chapels in California in a five-mile radius. When I came to Virginia, there was a Calvary Chapel in Virginia Beach, and there was not another one until you get to almost DC.

That was unheard of for me. Being up here on the Peninsula and there's not another Calvary Chapel, I saw that there are some very fine believers walking with God at other churches, and God had to severely rebuke me for this ugliness in my heart. I believe that there are some of you here that God needs to rebuke for that sort of ugliness in your heart because some of you only like believers who look like you. Then those who are believers who don't look like you or think like you, you kind of look down upon them in your heart. That's pride, that's arrogance, and it's ugliness. Paul says, "I thank my God for you all."

Look at verses nine and 10. "For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request, if by some means now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you." Paul starts off verse nine by saying that God was his witness to what he was saying to them—that it was the truth—whom he served with his spirit in the gospel of His Son. Let me draw your attention to the word "serve." The Greek word is *latreuō*, and it refers to a religious service.

It is used in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament to describe the duties of the priest in the tabernacle and later in the temple. It is often translated as worship because the work of the priest was an act of worship. It refers to the worship and service of the true God. The greatest act of worship we can offer God is in serving Him in some form of ministry. We so often look at the worship of God in the form of only singing songs to God. No, true worship of God is seen as we offer ourselves to God on the altar in our service to Him as well.

This is what Romans 12:2 talks about. It says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service," *latreuō*. Or "our reasonable act of worship" is what other translations have. Do you only worship God in song? Now there's room for this because there's another Greek word for worship, and that's *proskuneō*, which means to turn and to kiss. It also means to adore. Yes, we can adore God through singing songs to Him, but it shouldn't end there. It should also conclude with *latreuō* in service to God as well.

Paul tells them that without ceasing, he makes mention of them always in his prayers. What we see is that Paul was a man of prayer. In almost every letter that he wrote, he starts off by telling those believers how he had been praying for them. Every person God has ever used in the history of mankind was a man or woman of prayer. It was Paul who exhorted the believers in the city of Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without ceasing. Here we see how Paul first practiced this principle in his life, or as the old saying goes, he practiced what he preached.

The key to successful parenting and successful leadership is to practice what we preach. Luke testified in Acts 1:1 that Jesus did the same thing. It says that Jesus began both to do and to teach. Jesus did it first, then He taught it to His disciples. He first prayed, then His disciples said in Luke 11:1, "Lord, teach us to pray." Then Jesus gave them what is commonly called the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11:2-4. If you want to be a good parent or leader, model first what you want them to do. This is what Paul did here. He said he prayed without ceasing for them.

What does it mean to pray without ceasing? Does that mean we go around mumbling? No. Someone described it as a tickle in the throat. In other words, to pray without ceasing means to go through the day praying as often and as reflexively as you would cough to suppress a tickle in the throat. You've seen people who have an allergy that results in coughing, and you always hear them trying to get that tickle out of their throat. That's what it means to pray without ceasing. As you're trying to clear your throat of the tickle, that's how often we should be praying.

Nehemiah was a master at this. Throughout the book of Nehemiah, you will find that he will offer up these little unspoken prayers to God. Only a person who spends time in private prayer to God can be confident enough to offer up little prayers to God throughout the day. While at work, offer up prayers for your leaders and coworkers. I guarantee you if you did this, it would change your whole attitude about your workplace. Or if you're working from home, pray for your boss and coworkers on Zoom privately. I never thought I'd have to put that in a sermon.

Evaluate your prayer life this week. Do you pray without ceasing? If so, what is it about? Your own personal success, the protection of your children, or for the blessings of God upon your life? These things have their place, but do you pray for the salvation of your loved ones who are lost? Do you pray for your enemies or for those who spitefully use you and curse you like Matthew 5:44 says? I see on social media all the time about how "you're toxic" and that means I don't have to have anything to do with you for my own sanity.

Take the time this week to evaluate your prayer life and the things you spend most of your time praying about, and I guarantee you'll be shocked. Now, I'm not saying that you can't pray for yourself. If you don't pray for you, who will? There's nothing wrong with praying for yourself. It's been rightfully put that if you want joy in your life, JOY is an acronym: Jesus, Others, and Yourself. That's how we should pray. Have Jesus first, pray for others, and pray for yourself last. You will find a joy unspeakable, full of glory, as the Bible says.

Paul gives the believers what he was praying about in verse 10. Notice he says, "making request, if by some means now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you." Paul had not been to Rome by this time, but he wanted to go there. I loved how Paul said that he prayed or made request to God that he by some means come to you. Paul was leaving the door open for God to use any means He chose to get him to Rome. Please don't miss this. What way did God choose to get Paul to Rome? As a prisoner!

We saw this in Acts 28:16. This was after being arrested, slapped in the face, falsely accused, crashed into an island of Malta, and bit by a poisonous snake. Let us be careful of praying direction prayers. These are prayers by which you and I tell God what to do or what He should do in our lives. Our prayers should be direct prayers, which are prayers which say, "God, You know what needs I have, what's best for my life, so You do what's best for my life in this situation. Lord, here are my desires, but let Your will be done."

Look at verses 11 and 12. "For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me." Notice how Paul's praying without ceasing for the believers in Rome in verse nine produced a longing to see them in verse 11. What or who we pray for, we will start to have a heart for or towards. Jesus said once again in Matthew 5:44 to pray for your enemies.

When we pray for those we consider our enemies or the people we consider toxic, they will soon no longer be our enemies, at least in our eyes. Pretty soon our hearts will start to break and melt towards them, and we will start to have a compassion towards them. Here, Paul prayed without ceasing for the Roman believers, and he had a heart and a longing to see them. He wanted to use his gifts in a personal way to establish them in the faith, which was through the gift of teaching which Paul had.

He also wanted them to use their gifts to encourage and minister to him, so they could be encouraged together by the mutual faith, like verse 12 says. This is what church or the body of Christ is supposed to do: come together and use our gifts to encourage each other in the mutual faith. The church is operating correctly when we are obeying Ephesians 4:16. There is an edifying—that word means building up—when we come together as a church and serve the Lord and serve each other. Only when every one of you is doing your part will cause this church to grow.

Think about that: are you doing your share? You call this your church; are you doing your share? If not, then you're hindering this church from growing and reaching more people for Jesus Christ. That's what it means to grow: true growth is to populate God's kingdom. If you're not doing your share, then there are people who are doing their share and trying to do your share as well. That causes burnout. That causes overload because they're doing what they're gifted to do, but they're also trying to do what you're not doing.

The church is limping along, and that's all it's doing. It's when every part does its share that it causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Paul said to the Romans, "I long to see you so we can encourage each other with our gifts in our mutual faith we have." However, there is a reason why Paul hadn't gotten to Rome, and we will see what that is next time. The title is going to be "God's Will vs. Satan Hindering." You've got to be able to know the difference. God bless America, I'm here to help you.

In this message entitled "My God," we saw the proper use of this phrase with the emphasis on the possessive pronoun "my." Is Jesus your God?